Meeting Paul McCartney in East Hampton

I was living in Watermill on Long Island when I met Paul McCartney. John, my friend and work partner in New York City, and I had just visited Dragon Gallery in Amagansett to see Chris, the owner, at their new location. It was to show him the new painting I had just finished.

And we usually stopped at East Hampton and met some people we knew. One day, I was waiting for a coach bus back to Water Mill from East Hampton. Then, John said Paul McCartney was at the bus stop. And he went to speak to him. Paul McCartney seemed to have just got off the bus. He was standing just one metre away from me.

John introduced me to Paul McCartney and said that I was an artist from Japan. Then, Paul McCartney asked me to show him the painting I had. And when he looked at it, he said, “Bright colours!”

Paul McCartney helped me put my painting back into a plastic bag with one of his hands. Another hand was in his pocket. He was wearing a suit. He was really a gentleman.

I had heard that he lived in Easthampton and he had probably just come back from New York City.

John added by saying his name is “John” and said things implying that we were like John Lennon and Yoko Ono. John often talked to me about Yoko Ono. And he said I looked like Yoko Ono when she was younger, showing me photos of her in her youth. John also looked like John Lennon, especially when he wore those small round sunglasses which John Lennon used to wear. He told me that it was the second time that he had seen and talked to Paul McCartney. And he went on to tell me about his experiences showing his bronze sculpture of John Lennon to him.


I Had Billy Joel in My Neighbourhood

After I had lived in a couple of places in East Hampton for a while, I moved to Sag Harbour. Soon, I noticed there was a construction site at a corner near the harbour where they were building a new house. John found out that it was Billy Joel moving into the house.

After the house had been built, John went to see Billy Joel and told him about me working on my paintings in my studio in his neighbourhood. And John told me that he asked him to come to my studio and he had said OK.

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